Example Open-Ended Questions You Can Start With

The easiest way to come up with an open-ended question – one that can’t be answered with “Yes” or “No” – is to remember the “5 W’s and an H”: Who, What, When, Where, Why & How. If you start your question with one of those words, it’s pretty likely to be open-ended. For example, here are some questions you can ask to get people talking about their problems:

What is the most annoying thing you have to do every day?

How often do you have to stop the machine for an error?

When is your busiest time in a project?

Continuation Questions

The continuation questions are for keeping people talking. (One isn’t even a question, more a request):

What happens next?

Tell me more.

How does that make you feel?

What would happen if you didn’t have to do that?

What would happen if you didn’t fix that?

The Five Questions To Ask About Any Product Idea

Once you’ve found a real problem, you have to determine if it’s worth solving. These are questions you have to ask yourself – and have good answers for – before even starting to build a solution.

Bootcamp: How To Present Your Best Self In Interviews

I will be leading a four-hour live bootcamp over four days in May on “How to present your best self in interviews.” I’ll help you learn to share powerful stories of your own accomplishments when you’re job seeking.

Recommended Links and Books

I mentioned Eric Reis’s The Lean Startup, as I often do on this podcast. It’s a great book for learning more about why to test your ideas to see if anyone will actually buy a product if you make it, and how to do it using Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) and other techniques.